Scary Movie 3

Scary Movie 3
Theatrical poster of Scary Movie 3.
Directed by	David Zucker
Produced by	Robert K. Weiss David Zucker
Written by	Craig Mazin Pat Proft
Based on	Characters Created by Shawn Wayans Marlon Wayans Buddy Johnson Phil Beauman Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer
Starring	Anna Faris Simon Rex Charlie Sheen Leslie Nielsen Anthony Anderson Kevin Hart Camryn Manheim George Carlin Pamela Anderson Jenny McCarthy Drew Mikuska Jianna Ballard Denise Richards and Regina Hall
Music by	James L. Venable
Editing by	Jon Poll
Studio	Brad Grey Pictures
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	October 20, 2003 (2003-10-20) (Los Angeles, California, premiere) October 24, 2003 (2003-10-24) (United States/Canada)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$45-48 million
Box office	$220,673,217

Scary Movie 3 is a 2003 American science fiction horror comedy parody film, which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres, directed by David Zucker. It is the third film of the Scary Movie franchise, as well as the first to have no involvement from the Wayans family. This is most evident as the film's content is less vulgar than the previous films, and the characters of Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins do not appear, nor are they referenced. The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix and 8 Mile. It is also the first film in the series to star Leslie Nielsen.

Plot

The film's plot is introduced by two girls, Katie (Jenny McCarthy) and Becca (Pamela Anderson), meeting a gruesome supernatural demise seven days after having watched a cursed videotape.

In a farm outside Washington D.C., widowed farmer and former reverend Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his clumsy and easily discouraged brother George (Simon Rex) discover a crop circle in their fields. The "circle" actually composes a sign shaped like an arrow pointing at the Logan house which reads in English: "ATTACK HERE".

Since the events of the previous film, the gang have all gone their separate ways. In Washington, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), now an anchorwoman, reveals the crop circle occurrence on the news, and afterwards has an argument with her boss, who only wants stories featuring sex, violence and the weather. She then goes to pick up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody (Drew Mikuska) from school, where her best friend and former classmate Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) now works as a teacher, no longer dating Ray Wilkins (originally Shawn Wayans). George Logan arrives to pick up his niece, Sue, Tom's daughter, who is in the same class. George and Cindy take an instant liking to each other, and he invites Cindy and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart).

Later that evening, George proves actually quite successful, but due to some unintentional racist blunders, he gets thrown out. Following the battle, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company, since she has watched the cursed videotape herself. After playing several pranks on Cindy, she goes to watch television, and is killed by the undead girl, Tabitha (Marny Eng), who emerges from her television set. George receives a phone call being informed about the death and Tom meets with Sayaman who apologises for all mistakes including the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie (Denise Richards), a short flashblack is also shown.

During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik, due to a misunderstanding, wreak havoc on Brenda's corpse in an attempt to bring her back to life. Cindy decides to watch the tape for herself and also receives the fateful message. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ comments that his Aunt Shaneequa, might be able to help Cindy. Aunt Shaneequa (Queen Latifah), who turns out to be The Oracle, and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to watch a segment of the tape. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse, which she claims Cindy must find to solve the mystery. But when Cindy returns home, she finds to her horror that Cody has watched the tape, condemning him to certain death.

Back at work, Cindy browses through various pictures of lighthouses, before finding the one depicted on the tape. Desperate to save Cody's life, Cindy tries to warn the population by typing a message into the station anchor's teleprompter, but only part of her message gets through before her boss and a janitor interrupt her. Among those who take her message seriously are the Logans, who have an encounter with an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen), who personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles.

With no further resources, Cindy ventures to the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect (George Carlin). The loquacious (and lecherous) old man explains the story behind the killer tape. Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the family farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil upon the tape. Unfortunately, he mistook the evil tape for a copy of Pootie Tang and returned it to Blockbuster instead, unleashing the curse upon the world.

Upon returning home, Cindy discovers that her station has been broadcasting the same tape for hours, dooming many people to death, and in addition, there have been various sightings of aliens descending upon Earth. Worse, Cody has gone missing. Cindy manages to track him back to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders everybody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight off the extraterrestrials. The aliens (voiced by Tom Kenny) arrive, but reveal that they are in fact friendly (despite their unusual customs), and have come to Earth to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted, thinking it was Pootie Tang.

In the basement, Cindy realizes that a scene from the tape matches the farm's cellar, and underneath the floor she uncovers the well where Tabitha was drowned. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha refuses and prepares to attack again, but is accidentally knocked back into the well by President Harris. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they forget to take Cody with them, and the boy gets knocked over by a car while chasing them down the road.

Cast

• Anna Faris as Cindy Campbell
• Regina Hall as Brenda Meeks (special appearance)
• Simon Rex - George Logan
• Charlie Sheen - Tom Logan
• Leslie Nielsen – President Baxter Harris
• Queen Latifah - Aunt Shaneequa/The Oracle
• Anthony Anderson - Mahalik
• Kevin Hart - CJ
• Camryn Manheim - Trooper Champlin
• George Carlin - The Architect
• Eddie Griffin - Orpheus
• Pamela Anderson - Becca Kotler
• Jenny McCarthy - Katie Embry
• Drew Mikuska - Cody
• Jianna Ballard - Sue Logan
• Denise Richards - Annie Logan
• D. L. Hughley - John Wilson
• Ja Rule - Agent Thompson
• Darrell Hammond - Father Muldoon
• Jeremy Piven - Ross Giggins
• Simon Cowell - Himself
• Marny Eng - Tabitha
• Edward Moss - MJ Alien
• Ajay Naidu - Sayaman

Rapper cameos

In one major scene, several actual rappers assist in the confrontation with the aliens and a subsequent shootout amongst themselves.

• Master P
• RZA
• Raekwon
• Method Man
• Redman
• Macy Gray
• U-God
• Fat Joe
• Ja Rule

Soundtrack

The Scary Movie 3 soundtrack was released on the soundtrack label Varese Sarabande and featured songs Co-written and Produced by Jorge Corante and Frank Fitzpatrick with the exception of one song produced by Rodney Jerkins.

• "Just Got Serious" - by Buku Wise featuring Young Dre
• "Mexican Hat Rap" - by Delinquent Habits
• "Ridin Rollin" - by N-Kroud Kliq
• "Do You Wanna" - by Jug
• "Smoke It Up" - by Kebyar
• "Fearless" - by Dame Lee
• "Who U Lookin' At" - by Gage
• "Rock Rock, Bounce Bounce" - Dame Lee, Featuring Jug
• "White Boy" - by Dirt Nasty (Simon Rex), Featuring Kevin Hart & the SM3 crew
• "Mayhem Remix" - by Jug, Featuring G-Man & Roz

Alternate scenes

The DVD edition includes a director's audio commentary, several deleted scenes and alternative endings (with optional commentary). A "3.5" special DVD was also released, and contained several more deleted scenes than the original DVD, with an unrated version of the film.

In the alternate ending, Cindy is told Cody does not exist. After hitting a few people in the face with a shovel, Cindy asks everybody who is not real to stand over at a different spot. Cody goes over there, but is followed by Santa Claus. The aliens then begin to invade but George stops them by transforming into The Hulk. President Harris tries to hulk out, but ends up soiling his pants. Cindy enters the Logan House, where she is attacked by Tabitha. She is teleported away to Aunt Shaneequa, who teaches her how to defeat Tabitha. Cindy must then confront hundreds of Tabithas. She wins the battle by performing moves from The Matrix and teleports back to the Logan House. The cast then gets into a car with the President, but are horrified to learn that the driver happens to be M. Night Shyamalan.

One of the scenes that appeared on the Extended DVD named Scary Movie 3.5 was part of the unrated feature. After Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy shut off the TV, the two compliment each other on their good looks. Anderson then asks if McCarthy wants her "shaved pussy", but this turns out to be a furless kitten.

In an extended scene, the person who runs Cody down at the end is shown to be Michael Jackson.

Reception

The film opened at the number one spot with $48,113,770, already recovering its budget and making it the highest debuting Scary Movie to date. It was also the highest weekend debut for a Fall and October release until it was broken by another threequel, Jackass 3D. In its second week takings declined to $20,017,468 but it still claimed the top spot for a second week running. At the end of its box office run, Scary Movie 3 grossed $110,003,217 in the U.S. and $110,670,000 internationally making $220,673,217 in total. It was an enormous box office success, raking in more than the previous installment but $58 million less than the first.

Reviews were mixed but the consensus was that it was a marked improvement on the previous installment. The film received a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 49% on Metacritic. This is the first film in the series to be rated PG-13. (The first two films were R rated.)

External links

• Scary Movie 3 at the Internet Movie Database
• Scary Movie 3 at AllRovi
• Scary Movie 3 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Scary Movie 3 at Metacritic
• Scary Movie 3 at Box Office Mojo